The Story Behind the Meet Cute

With Valentine’s Day fast-approaching and love in the air, now is the perfect time to sit down with a good romantic book or movie. And who doesn’t love a love story with a perfect meet cute?

If you haven’t heard the term, a meet cute is a cute, amusing, or charming first encounter between romantic partners, and you’ll find the meet cute everywhere, including in some of my books. Like Sage and Cannon’s fiery first encounter on the street in front of B’s Bakery in One Hundred Reasons. Or in Betting on Him, when waitress Faye waits on mobster Alex and gives him an honest assessment of her working conditions, only to find out later that he is her new boss (and eventual fake husband). Or Kennedy’s first encounter with Wade in No Matter What Happens, when he strips for her and her friends at his night job, only to have him show up later as her handyman. 

And, of course, don’t forget about classic movie meet cutes, like Harry and Sally’s first road trip encounter in When Harry Met Sally, or when Henry meets Lucy in the café in 50 First Dates, or how Edward meets Vivian in Pretty Woman.

So many fictional romances start with the meet cute. But who coined the term?

Well, believe it or not, the term dates back to 1938 and the movie Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife, a romantic comedy starring Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper. Gary Cooper’s character is shopping for pajamas, but he tells the attendant that he only wants to buy the pajama top. (Yes, the top, not the bottoms.) The attendant refuses to sell him just the top, but Claudette Colbert comes along and says she will buy the bottoms. The director of the film, Ernst Lubitsch, struggled with English, and couldn’t find the words to describe the encounter between the two characters, and he referred to it as a meet cute. And the term stuck.

What is your favorite meet-cute from a book or movie?